Niga-tama, Bitter Gallbladder

Posted on Jun 5, 2014 in Hiroko's Blog

gal bladderDon’t break the gallbladder. I was repeatedly warned by an instructor-sushi chef when I was trained as a sushi chef in Japan years ago. In Japan we call fish gallbladder niga-tama, which literally means bitter ball. Niga-tama is full of extremely bitter bile juice secreted from the liver. Once we break the gallbladder and its juice spread over the surface of the inner belly part of the fish nor matter how thoroughly we rinse it the stained flesh tastes unpleasantly bitter, even after cooking.

How to avoid messing up the gallbladder when you cut off the head of the fish with intestine-attached from the body part of the fish? Pick up and lift up the pectoral fin and make a deep enough cut behind it so that the knife cuts the thin flesh attached skin but not the intestines. Here you see in the photo the shiny, dark green gallbladder which I spotted.

Today’s fluke for preparing ceviche came from Blue Moon fishmonger. The fish was in an excellent quality, so after cutting the head off I took a photo. Blood is not clogged to the center bone, but flowed out of the intestine. Good sign of super fresh fish.

summer flukeAccording to Stephanie, fisherman Alex’s wife, says the summer fluke is meatier, fattier and tastier. So, purchase a piece – always the whole fish, but not already filleted ones -, fillet and enjoy it in sashimi or ceviche. My story about sashimi and ceviche, SASHIMI…CEVICHE…COUSINS? is appearing soon at Zester Daily. Please stand by.

By the way gallbladder plays important role in digesting food in our body https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallbladder.

Very Fresh Bloodfluke filletSashimi Fluke